Project Based Learning!

This week in my W310 class we are learning about inquiry based learning and how it benefits our students. Specifically we are learning how to incorporate problem based learning into our classroom. Each student in my class was asked to create there own lesson plan using this method of teaching. The lesson plan required students to investigate in the community around them. This type of learning goes beyond asking students simple questions that do not require much thought. Instead, Project Based learning requires students to be active learners are work together to create a project that answers the driving question. Below is a great example of project based learning at a Charter school in Washington D.C.

When creating a project based learning activity for your class it is important to pick a driving question that will interest your students. In the Edutopia article about project based learning, it is said to keep the following things in mind when you are crafting your driving question

•  What content and skills do my students need to learn? 
• What would be proof of their understanding?
• In what contexts will they develop understanding?
• What are my students interested in?
• What are real problems that people in my field—ecology, biology, local history—grapple with that are related to the content I need to teach?
• What is the problem that I want my kids to solve?
• What product will my students create?

When creating my Project Based Learning Activity I thought it would be awesome to have my students create their own Bills! When learning how a bill becomes a law in social studies, the process can get confusing trying to distinguish who gets decide on what happens to the bill. I thought that by presenting the driving question, "What kind of bill would you want to become a law in your school?" would get students excited and engaged in learning about the process.

My "grabber" for this activity would be to show students the Schoolhouse Rock video, "I'm Just a Bill." By showing students this video I hope to get them excited and inspired to pursue their own research on the computer about how this process works. Through their research I hope they learn the steps that it takes for a bill to become a law and bills that have already become laws that interest them or effect them personally. I will have the students present the information they have found to the class. You can view my lesson plan here!

For my culminating activity I will have students break up into groups and I will challenge them to brainstorm different bills that they think should become laws. Each group will be responsible for creating their own bill and presenting it to the principle and vice principle mimicking the actual process.

I really enjoyed creating a lesson through Project Based Learning. I think that this is a great way for teachers to get students involved in their own learning and a great way for students to become life long learners. Throughout this project I struggled with creating driving questions. It took a lot of revising and feedback from my peers to come to the lesson I have now. I look forward to using this method of teaching in my classroom because I think that it benefits both the student and teacher's learning experience.